Operating profit growth of listed firms decelerated in Q4 of FY22: RBI data

Operating profit growth of listed private companies decelerated across broad sectors in the January-March quarter of 2021-22, on the back of rise in expenditure, according to an RBI data.

The Reserve Bank has released its data on the performance of the private corporate sector during the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021-22 drawn from abridged quarterly financial results of 2,758 listed Non-Government Non-Financial (NGNF) companies.

Operating profit of manufacturing companies decelerated sharply to 7 per cent in the fourth quarter of last fiscal as against 70 per cent in the corresponding quarter of the preceding fiscal.

In case of companies in services sector (non-IT), the growth in operating profit slowed to 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 compared to 62.5 per cent in the year-ago period.

The operating profit in case of IT firm slowed to 5.9 per cent from 19.7 per cent.

RBI data further said sales of 2,758 listed private non-financial companies recorded a healthy growth of 22.3 per cent (year-on-year) in fourth quarter of 2021-22, compared to 22.8 per cent in the comparable quarter of previous year.

"Aggregate sales of 1,709 listed private manufacturing companies registered a steady growth (y-o-y) of 24.6 per cent in Q4, 2021-22, driven by high sales growth in petroleum, non-ferrous metals, iron and steel, chemicals and textiles industries," the RBI said.

Information Technology (IT) companies continued their move on growth trajectory with 20.7 per cent growth in sales during fourth quarter of 2021-22.

Sales of non-IT services companies expanded by 20.9 per cent (y-o-y) in January-March period 2021-22, led by steady growth in transport, trade, telecom, hotel and restaurant sectors.

Despite rising expenditures, manufacturing companies maintained their operating and net profit margins in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 as compared to previous quarter.

Net profit margin remained stable for IT companies, while for non-IT services companies it remained in negative terrain due to losses recorded by telecom and transport companies, the RBI said.